It’s the first time I’ve heard of this disaster....
In 1987 the city of Goiânia in Brazil was hit by one of the worst radiation disasters in history and it started in the most unexpected way.
Two scrap collectors broke into an abandoned medical clinic and found an old radiotherapy machine. Inside was a highly radioactive source containing caesium 137.
Not realising the danger they broke it open and found a glowing blue substance.
What followed was catastrophic.
The material was passed around, handled, and even taken home because it looked unusual and almost beautiful, but it was silently deadly.
Within days and weeks, multiple people became seriously ill, four people later died from radiation poisoning, around 250 were contaminated, and over 100000 people had to be screened.
Entire areas of the city ended up contaminated and had to be decontaminated, with buildings demolished and radioactive waste sealed away.